they were cracking down on things. i think there is middle ground, but if obama is staking out an extreme position of, i might do executive orders, the nra is staking out its extreme position of, we have no common ground yet, and perhaps there can be something in the middle that they're going to reach in terms of compromise. >> bill, let me ask you about something that i find confusing. the background checks here, and the background checks, i mean, 97% of republicans support background checks, right? let's just assume, most people out there support it. the truth is, though, they wouldn't have stopped the shooting in newtown. and the background checks, even though they check for mental health, you have to be institutionize -- institutionalized, the standards are very high. but the problem is, every time these shootings happen, it often seems, all the things we have in place and all the proposed things we have in place would not have stop them. >> i think what you have to look at is, you're right, that the background che